Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Cardiff Blues and Gloucester met at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday for a match that attracted the sixth largest crowd ever for a Heineken Cup Pool match. The Blues secured a crucial bonus point-win as they took the honours in this classic match by 37-24.

A day after a couple of dismal European matches, this game lifted the spirits again as the 27,114 crowd witnessed the Blues storm to a famous triumph, aided by tries from Leigh Halfpenny, Gareth Thomas, and Nicky Robinson.

Blues number 8 Andy Powell produced a Man of the Match performance, and has since been rewarded with a place in the Welsh squad. He Is joined by young flyer Halfpenny, who picked up two tries on the day.

"Gloucester really laid it on the table but the boys stood up and got the result. You have to win your home games and this was our best performance of the year,” Powell said afterwards.

It was a splendid attacking spectacle all round, and a fantastic match for the neutral. The try of the game came from a superb Ben Blair step that saw him carve through the defence before offloading to a supporting Jamie Robinson. Gareth Thomas was there to take the final pass as he crossed for a memorable Blues five pointer.

As per a request, we’ve got all the tries up for you from this classic Heineken Cup encounter that was played out at the forever impressive Millennium Stadium.

To the patronising git above ("voice of common sense"....oh dear) population is only one factor to do with crowd numbers. You used to see 100,000 + going to cricket matches in Australia, 10's of thousands going to rugby in NZ, but I doubt you'd get many Thai's turning up to a field hockey game. And what on earth makes you think that Cardiff folk are the only ones going to the game?

Profile of the sports/match in both competing nations (rugby is currently undergoing a huge revival, even in the north), competition from other spectator sports, other regional teams (Paris is one of the few top-tier teams from the north of the country) etc. etc.

And as for the way you signed off on your post....can you google "condescending" as quickly as you can google "population of Cardiff and Paris". Smart man...

Well as the 6th best ever crowd for the HC i'd say then that it was a good crowd. Apart from people from cardiff and gloucester i doubt there were many people from other areas at that match. Kerivoula i don't know if your welsh or not but if you are then you should know that the only people who like cardiff, are people from cardiff.

Kerivoula you really have no idea what you’re talking about, in Welsh rugby there are regions, and the people inside those regions support the team. Cardiff is just that, a region, people in other parts of Wales will support there own region.

And if your telling me the fact that Cardiff only has a population of 317,500 has nothing to do with it you’re clueless.

If 50,000 Cardiff fans and 20,000 Gloucester fans were at the game, that would be 1/7 of the entire population of the city would be in the stadium.

Anyway it was a good number as like stated its the sixth best. So unless you or tehsniper is arguing with the statistical history of the Heineken cup keep quiet.

I didn't say it had "nothing to do with it" you fool, just that it's only one factor that was utterly over-stressed. If you want a more qualified opinion, Norster (good enough for you?) puts it down to:

"frequency of terrestrial live TV coverage of our home games."

"economic downturn"

"ticket pricing" (they reduced it for Glstr)

All good reasons and nothing whatsoever to do with the population of Cardiff. But thanks for the fascinating facts on regional rugby in Wales. All new to me...

Gloucester's "large" following? Kingsholm has a capacity of 16,500 and Gloucester itself is tiny.

Australia's population is huge in comparison to Wales and rugby is the number one sport in New Zealand. Football (soccer) is more dominant in Cardiff. Cardiff City FC average 20,000 fans for league games and filled Wembley for the FA Cup final last season despite not being in the top flight. Swansea FC average around 18,000 compared to 7,000 for the Ospreys. Compare that to football attendances in NZ (a country with more people); with around 8,000 for a league game if you're lucky.

I really don't understand your point at all; it's a small country with a small population (yes, smaller than NZ) and two "mainstream" sports vying for punters with all of the major teams located in the south.

cardiff fans should be ashamed of themselves, awful turn out. was in spoons before the match and everyone was a glos fan, and it seemed like glos fans out numbered cardiff, rubbish effort. also with regards to kingsholm getting a small crowd, the ground is tiny and is wedged right into the city, so its pretty difficult to expand. regardless of the size, the atmosphere comparison is not even close, considering the roof was shut and everything, kingsholm is still louder and more intimidating, professional players can tell you that.

looks a heck of a game. but i have to say to anonymous that the player a 3.10 was olly barkley getting pushed by the flanker, and i have to say the try during that clip showed good hands and off-loading

With regards to the crowd size, hardly anyone in Cardiff actually gives a damn about our regional team. It's highly disappointing that the vast majority of people in Cardiff only turn into rugby fans on the international stage, and even then it's only when Wales are doing well... It really drives me nuts. We rarely exceed more than 6-7000 down the Arms Park for your average Magners game.

I'm a huge Blues fan and would have been there with bells on had I not been struggling for money. Tickets were only £10 too. Awesome win though. Andy Powell is having a cracking season and completely deserves his Wales call up.

Did seem as though there were more gloucester fans than cardiff yeah. The problem with cardiff is most are football fans as was said earlier, and most the population are foreign and have probably never even heard of rugby.

The only way they'd have ever got support was if they scrapped cardiff from the name and played some games up in pontypridd and the rest of the valleys when the celtic warriors folded. But its too late for all that now, cardiff only have themselves to blame.

"The only way they'd have ever got support was if they scrapped cardiff from the name and played some games up in pontypridd and the rest of the valleys when the celtic warriors folded. But its too late for all that now, cardiff only have themselves to blame."

Perfectly put.

+ Regional rugby doesn't seem to be that popular, or we seem to lack decent fans for Regional games.. It's a shame :( + Wales is too tribal!

Voice of common sense; Soccer (eugh) is more popular in Cardiff is it? Well if you actually visited the place you would realise it has a partisan rugby following comparable only to Christchurch in New Zealand. Seriously.